Wednesday Report

It's time for another Wednesday progress report.   The rebuilt patterns were taken to the foundry in Chicago on Monday, and we hope to get the first pair of castings in three or four weeks.  Today, I started by wyeing the 309 to put its #1 truck on the east end, so we can work on it without blocking the street or having the car exposed to rain and snow.  And here it is over the pit.

We also wanted to check one of the bearings that had been worked on earlier, and try a couple of different ways of removing and reinstalling the heavy castings.  I had wanted to replace the casting, since the pins in the old one (L) are loose, but it turns out the holes for the bolts in the spare casting (R) are smaller.  It must have been held on with smaller bolts.   Well, that was a kick in the shins.  In any case, acting on some good suggestions from Dave Johnston, I checked the rest of the measurements as accurately as possible, and they seem to match.

The bearing fits the spare casting, presumably from the 318, as well as it does the 309's.

We also need to come up with a good way to raise the motor off the axle when trying to replace the bearings.  This will have to wait for another day.

In other news, one of the center sections of the Liner has been moved into Barn 4.   The articulated connections between sections will be repaired next Tuesday.   So good progress is being made. 

The AEM-7 was moved outside, in a good location for picture taking.

A view of the truck.  I noticed that this truck cannot swivel very much, but the unit has such a short wheelbase it doesn't need to.

And here's a view of the roof equipment.

Dan Fenlaciki went up on the roof of the shop to patch leaks in the roof with spray coating.  I stood around to supervise, and hold the ladder when needed.

Here you can see the black dots where possible leaks have been sprayed.   This is a good thing to do.

Gerry and John F. were working on the 213 again, and needed a little help with removing old wires.  I haven't worked on a North Shore car for a long time, so this experience may come in handy some day.

And I also painted over the letters G and FV in the 308, so they can be painted more accurately.